Have you ever noticed how, in classic portrait photography, people of different genders are shot differently? A quick google image search of mainstream women’s magazine titles will reveal cover girls, mostly shot from above, looking down coyly. Do the same for a popular men’s magazine, and come up with images of men shot from below and looking at the world straight ahead. Part of what I love about BUST’s photographers is that they subvert this norm and shoot women looking the world head on. Read More

Although we at BUST are always sad to hear about a fellow print publication struggling, I can't say I'd miss Penthouse. Due to the availability of pornography on the internet, the porn magazine is having trouble making ends meet. Los Angeles Times reports, “the California company that owns Penthouse magazine, [online dating sites like FriendFinder] and a host of [...] adult websites filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday.” The company believes that filing is “the most [...] cost effective way for the company to continue to operate [the] business. Read More

Let’s face it: middle school dances are terrifying. In my youth, I spent my first dance alone in the corner of the cafeteria wearing my mom’s lipstick and a clip-in french twist hairpiece, hoping that the cool girls dancing in their cool circle would come talk to me. They didn’t, and a part of me has always regretted not getting up and dancing with them (I was and still am a horrible dancer, but who cares?). Read More

I know, I know, we’re all sick of talking about Miley Cyrus. Regardless of the obvious cultural appropriation and insensitivity she displayed at the VMA’s with her twerk debacle, the debate on whether or not her overt sexuality is empowering (or degrading) continues.
Today, she released her new video for her song “Wrecking Ball.” In the song, she describes the heartbreak and loss that can come with truly falling in love with someone who might not reciprocate the feeling: “Don’t you ever say I just walked away/ I will always want you. Read More

Last week, writer Stefanie Williams wrote a piece for the Huffington Post where she talks openly about sex, and gets copious amounts of hate mail for it. Recently, strangers have been writing her calling her a “slut,” and Williams addresses these comments in the article. She notes the double standard between the sexes, claiming that men who enjoy sex are not often humiliated and berated as women in similar situations are. Read More

Ferrett Steinmetz and Daughter
At a recent panel following a screening of the new Amanda Seyfried film Lovelace, Gloria Steinem spoke out against excessive parental control over young women’s intimate lives: “I have always, always said that children must be allowed to disobey.” For weeks, I turned this comment over in my head. How does what we learn from our parents during our young adult years effect our ideas on gender and sexuality? Our romantic behavior? Our sense of worth?
This week, a debate on this very topic took the internet by storm. Read More

Piper Chapman, three months shy of her incarceration in federal prison, lounges on the beach with her fiancé Larry, gabbing casually about her jailtime to-do list.
“I’m going to read everything on my Amazon wishlist. And maybe even learn a craft, you know? I could be crafty.” Oh, girl.
You know that the protagonist of Netflix's new original series, Orange is the New Black, is about to have a rude awakening.
And don’t worry. In this dark dramedy - based on the real life experiences of Piper Kerman and created by Jenji Kohan - shit gets real real quick. Read More

So I haven’t heard of Kraft’s “Zesty Guy” until recently, mostly because I think salad is the devil. I plan to be like the great residents of Pawnee, Indiana one day: “first in friendship, fourth in obesity.” However, yesterday I laid my eyes on Kraft’s latest Zesty Guy ad and...god, I am hungry for some vegetables.
Of course, though, due to the "provocative" nature of the ad (as you can see, the man is all but naked aside from some strategically place gingham) some people are up in arms. Read More

Coming (ha) to an iPhone near you: a new game that teaches females how to masturbate. Just like you’ve always wanted, but didn't know how to ask. The game, called HappyPlayTime, is an instructional journey to the world of female orgasm, and offers…playful diagrams to help you reach your destination. Cool?
The goal of it is to smash the negative cultural stigma that frowns upon female masturbation, ‘cause you know, we’re all supposed to be delicate little flowers without desires and what-not. Read More

Last summer, when Republican candidate Todd Akin was quoted saying, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” he was, thankfully enough, met with incredulous public outrage. (Update: he regrets his foolish words!) However – as abhorrent as Akin’s comments are – they do reveal society’s general misunderstanding of how the human body, the brain, sexual assault, and arousal are scientifically interconnected. Read More